Archive for kidnapping

Vigilantism is wrong. It doesn't matter what the cause or stand they are acting upon, the commission of any activity driven by revenge or hate cannot be tolerated.

Usually we hear stories of retribution or mob thinking and it's sadly over a cause or belief that means something to us. A group of bullies or toughs take on a weaker opponent. It's most often racially charged, religiously motivated, politically infused, hate driven mob mentality that launches these actions. This story is the same, but a bit different. It's coming from an angle that you usually don't hear about. It's defenders of an underdog. They took it on themselves to become aggressors, and justly, they have to be called out on it.

Sticking up for someone's rights is admirable but only when it doesn't cross the line into lawlessness. The details come from Raw Story.

Four underage teens — three boys and one girl — in Portland, Oregon were arrested on kidnapping and assault charges after they allegedly lured a bully into a shed and tortured him for calling a classmate “gay.”

According to the arrest report, the ring-leader was a 14-year-old boy who was upset that the victim had called another student “gay” on Facebook. The other attackers were similarly perturbed, and believed that their actions would be “an act of revenge.”

Sadly, had these assailants acted in a rational sense, reporting it to authorities, there probably wouldn't have been any action taken. It would most likely have been dismissed as kids just goofing on other kids. But we'll never know. These four attackers committed horrific crimes. No matter their intentions nor the motivations, this was wrong.

Too often the shoe is on the other foot -- just look at Russia and their anti-gay stance. Under the guise of Russian law, civil rights and human rights are being trampled. LGBT citizens are being beaten, humiliated and worse, even killed. But as evil and wrong as that is, so is the flip side of this argument. As a pro LGBT supporter, it's isolated incidents like this that can give ammunition to the very large, anti-gay movement. I hope this isn't a flash point in Oregon, or anywhere else, that ignites into something much bigger and more hateful.

When Elizabeth Smart was only 14-years-old, she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City, Utah home and held prisoner by her kidnappers for nine months, forced into a polygamous marriage, and raped on a daily basis. She's 25 now. It's hard to imagine the horror she felt and the pain and confusion she suffered. It's physically sickening to even think about, and yet she survived. And now she's speaking out.

Think Progress is reporting on a speech Smart gave at Johns Hopkins about human trafficking and sexual violence. In that speech she answers the question about why she didn't try to escape when she was brought outside to public venues by her captors. And that answer was that she, like other human trafficking victims, stay put because they feel worthless after being raped, especially after being influenced their whole lives by conservatives who push abstinence-only and sexual purity:

Smart said she “felt so dirty and so filthy” after she was raped by her captor, and she understands why someone wouldn’t run “because of that alone.”

Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins human trafficking forum, saying she was raised in a religious household and recalled a school teacher who spoke once about abstinence and compared sex to chewing gum.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.’ And that’s how easy it is to feel like you know longer have worth, you know longer have value,” Smart said. “Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value.”

"Pro life" but not "your life has value." Got it.

Think Progress takes it from there. Please link over and read the rest.

And all this time I thought Aqua Buddha was a bracing after shave fragrance for wingnuts. It has a certain commercial ring to it...

He denies everything! It's all too ridiculous to be true! And besides, who remembers that far back anyway?

"I think I would remember... I don't remember... I'm not gonna really try to go back 27 years and remember everything I did in college...I don't think that really politicians should be asked to answer anonymous accusers from 27 years ago, butI will categorically deny that I ever kidnapped anyone or forced anybody to use drugs."

Haitian police detained 10 members of a US Christian group after they allegedly tried to leave the country with more than 30 children who survived the country's devastating earthquake. [...]

Police had arrested five men and five women with US passports, as well as two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the neighboring Dominican Republic with 33 children late Friday, Haitian authorities said. [...]

The Americans were members of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, said Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin, adding: "This is an abduction, not an adoption." [...]

Patricia Vargas, head of an international center caring for the youngsters, said that officials at the Haitian Institute of Social Welfare, which deals with adoptions, told her "most of the kids have family."

Some of the older children had spoken to aid workers and "say their parents are alive, and some of them gave us an address and phone numbers," she said.

The US embassy confirmed that ten US citizens were being held for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."

At least they were caught. This time.

UPDATE, via an e-mail alert from the Associated Press:

Haiti prime minister says US Baptist group knew it was wrong to take children out of country.